Podcaster Joe Rogan has leveled explosive accusations against Dr. Anthony Fauci over the government’s handling of COVID-19 vaccines during pregnancy, saying he personally knows five women who suffered miscarriages after being vaccinated and accusing Fauci of publicly promoting the shots despite privately discussing a potential risk.

Rogan’s remarks come amid renewed scrutiny of Fauci following the release of previously undisclosed text messages from his government-issued phone. The messages show that Fauci and other senior health officials discussed a theoretical concern in early 2021 about whether immune responses following COVID vaccination could pose a risk during early pregnancy.

Rogan, one of the country’s most influential podcasters and a longtime critic of the government’s pandemic response, went considerably further, accusing Fauci of knowingly misleading the public.

“He knew that women were getting miscarriages and he lied about it.”

Rogan pointed to the newly released communications as evidence for his accusation.

“He said privately in a text message it seems there’s a cytokine storm causing miscarriages after the second dose and was publicly out there promoting the idea of pregnant women getting vaccinated.”

The actual messages released this week are more tentative than Rogan’s characterization. In a January 2021 exchange involving Fauci, then-CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky and Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, Fauci raised the possibility that fever and a cytokine response after a second vaccine dose could potentially present a concern during the first trimester. At the same time, the officials discussed the absence of observed safety problems among more than 10,000 pregnant women who had already been vaccinated.

The messages were released by Republican Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin as part of their continuing examination of Fauci’s conduct and the federal government’s response to the pandemic. The senators obtained more than 34,000 text messages and hundreds of voicemails from Fauci’s government phone.

Rogan said his own suspicions were also shaped by the experiences of women he personally knows.

“I personally know 5 different people who got pregnant during the pandemic, got vaccinated, and had miscarriages.”

Rogan argued that Fauci’s private communications were fundamentally at odds with the confidence he expressed publicly about vaccination during pregnancy.

“That guy’s a sociopath,” he said.

Rogan also broadened his attack beyond COVID-19, urging listeners to examine Fauci’s role during the AIDS epidemic decades earlier.

“You need to go and objectively read up on what that guy did with AZT and AIDS in the ’80s.”

He then returned to his central accusation concerning pregnant women and COVID vaccination.

“He knew there was an issue with women having miscarriages and that [person] still openly promoted it on television.”

The newly disclosed messages have revived arguments over how federal health officials communicated uncertainty during the early stages of the vaccine rollout. They show that Fauci privately considered a possible biological mechanism involving fever and cytokine responses in early pregnancy at a time when comprehensive pregnancy-specific vaccine data were not yet available.